He wanted a strong central government to provide order and stability.
From his idyllic Mount Vernon setting, Washington wrote to Madison: "Wisdom and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm." Embellished day after day in the press, the uprising made upper-class Americans shudder as they imagined hordes of vicious outlaws descending upon innocent citizens. Although the insurrection was put down by state troops, the incident confirmed the fears of many wealthy men that anarchy was just around the corner. Led by Daniel Shays, a former captain in the Continental army, a group of armed men, sporting evergreen twigs in their hats, prevented the circuit court from sitting at Northampton, MA, and threatened to seize muskets stored in the arsenal at Springfield. In 1786 some of the farmers had fought back. Some of them were being thrown in jail for debt, and numerous farms were being confiscated and sold for taxes. Congress was attempting to function with a depleted treasury paper money was flooding the country, creating extraordinary inflation-a pound of tea in some areas could be purchased for a tidy $100 and the depressed condition of business was taking its toll on many small farmers. Saddled with this weak government, the states were on the brink of economic disaster. It had little power to settle quarrels between states. It could not tax and was generally impotent in setting commercial policy it could not effectively support a war effort. With the states retaining considerable power, the central government, he believed, had insufficient power to regulate commerce. In force since 1781, established as a "league of friendship" and a constitution for the 13 sovereign and independent states after the Revolution, the articles seemed to Madison woefully inadequate. America's own government under the Articles of Confederation, Madison was convinced, had to be replaced. The Virginian's labors convinced him of the futility and weakness of confederacies of independent states. The determined Madison had for several years insatiably studied history and political theory searching for a solution to the political and economic dilemmas he saw plaguing America.
Torn between the hazards of lending his reputation to a gathering perhaps doomed to failure and the chance that the public would view his reluctance to attend with a critical eye, the general finally agreed to make the trip. Suffering from rheumatism, despondent over the loss of a brother, absorbed in the management of Mount Vernon, and doubting that the convention would accomplish very much or that many men of stature would attend, Washington delayed accepting the invitation to attend for several months. The Father of the Country had almost remained at home. To many of those assembled, especially to the small, boyish-looking, 36-year-old delegate from Virginia, James Madison, the general's mere presence boded well for the convention, for the illustrious Washington gave to the gathering an air of importance and legitimacy But his decision to attend the convention had been an agonizing one. With characteristic ceremonial modesty, the general expressed his embarrassment at his lack of qualifications to preside over such an august body and apologized for any errors into which he might fall in the course of its deliberations. George Washington for the presidency of the Constitutional Convention. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, the "financier" of the Revolution, opened the proceedings with a nomination-Gen. Guards stood at the entrances to ensure that the curious were kept at a distance. May 25, 1787, freshly spread dirt covered the cobblestone street in front of the Pennsylvania State House, protecting the men inside from the sound of passing carriages and carts.
He was unanimously elected president of the Philadelphia convention.
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